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From the start ArenaNet decided against differentiating the races in a strong way, to keep PvP balanced and to avoid every min-maxer rolling one race and one race only.

All races use the same hitbox and weapon reach, despite their visual size differences.

Each race has a few of their own racial skills to learn, however these skills are by design weaker than profession skills and not usable in PvP, to avoid everyone jumping on a particular race for an advantage.

There are still some perceived advantages and disadvantages to each race. Many folks feel playing as a charr or norn make jumping puzzles more difficult, while other feel their epic gear looks decidedly less so on a little asura.

From the start ArenaNet decided against differentiating the races in a strong way, to keep PvP balanced and to avoid every min-maxer rolling one race and one race only.

All races use the same hitbox and weapon reach, despite their visual size differences.

Each race has a few of their own racial skills to learn, however these skills are by design weaker than profession skills and not usable in PvP, to avoid everyone jumping on a particular race for an advantage.

There are still some perceived advantages and disadvantages to each race. Many folks feel playing as a charr or norn make jumping puzzles more difficult, while other feel their epic gear looks decidedly less so on a little asura.

What he said... I played an asura: loved the animations, hate the look of armors, Played a norn... felt like playing a turtle and puzzles were atrocious.

Not sure how it works in WoW (never played that), but there are quite a lot of pets to tame, some of which can only be found in certain regions. I play a Norn Warrior and must say that I like the Norn female appearance much more than the Barbie Human one.

If I had not picked a Norn Warrior, I would have gone with Charr. They just look awesome in heavy armor. But I also like my Ranger, Mr. Charrsy (yes, I somehow managed to screw up on the name with an "s" where a "c" should have been) with his pets, "Pride" and "Prejudice".

But I also like my Ranger, Mr. Charrsy (yes, I somehow managed to screw up on the name with an "s" where a "c" should have been) with his pets, "Pride" and "Prejudice".

Love this

The race choice in GW2 is quite difficult because several of them are interesting! Not just the standard dwarf/human/elf choice. I've leveled a Sylvari, because I found them to be interestingly unique and I liked the customisations. I also like Asura a lot, but I would also like to level a Charr and a Norn -- all are interesting in their own right. Except humans, which I find boringly generic... but sadly I am not a veteran of GW1 so I don't have an affinity with the humans from that.

Personally, I choose race by what it believes in and how it acts. That's why I so dislike cocky asura, even though their loyalty to their krew is interesing and like charr loyalty to warbands in my opinion is quite nice positive side of those races. Since I dislike cats charr fall off quite a lot. That mix of feline and canine properties does not appeal for me.

Humans are interesting, they seem to be offering that human optimism and resilience against desperation being on losing side. But that losing side doesn't really feel like it and that stupid laughing in Divinities Reach just pisses me off (reminds me how ignorant people usually are).
Norn are practically human loners, who are quite self centred but also they feel sincere from the heart and not oppressive dicks that they could be.
Sylvari for me are most interesting due to their naive goodness and curiosity. And Ventari tablet is quite interesting state of their philosophy.
Personally I can practicly have norn and sylvari for myself as playable races, but 3 of one race would bore me of that race.

In terms of racial skills Asura and Charr have the best ones, but there's not that much in it and you can't use them in pvp, so it's all about which starting area you feel like playing in the most. I'm planning to make a mesmer and I'm between norn and asura myself, love the animations and humour of the asura but I kinda like the Norn starting area the most - plus I think it'd be funny to make an absolutely massive Norn and spawn craploads of clones of myself, and as a bonus it'd probably be pretty disorienting and intimidating in pvp!

Oh apparently there's a bug that makes Guardian protection bubbles smaller if you're an asura, but since you're starting a ranger that doesn't affect you.

I tend to just go on the aesthetics of it and lore considerations. The racial abilities are fun to play around with in PvE but I don't think they have too much impact otherwise and there's always equivalently useful class ones. That said I've yet to get to level 80 so things may change there.

I do like the model proportions for the Norn, but it can look very odd in the fancy frilly/opera clothing of the female elementalist/mesmer class. It tends to look good on the leather/metal armour types though.

Asura necromancers look great, especially with some of the more menacing Asura face options and the paler skin colours. I've got one that I'm really happy with the aesthetics off (though I've not invested any time in playing it yet).

Sorry to resurrect an old thread.
There's a racial elite I really liked from the Humans.

Avatar of Melandru
This transformation used to give 20 seconds of stability even if you cancel the transformed state immediately. This made the character immune to the knockdown and stuns etc.

Even when A.net fixed this oversight, I still love it when I ran the Fractal Swamp & Cliffside where people cursed and swore at the environmental hazards from the air-blowing vents and ground tripwires ... I just turn into a tree and walked like a boss while the Norn faceplants into the mud.

Yes, it's been confirmed several times by the devs. It's a central part of their balance philosophy.

Having said that, I suppose it may be the case that there are different hitboxes for combat collision than there are for terrain collision? Where did you find you could do this? I wouldn't mind testing it for myself.